Top 5 Greatest Love Stories In History

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Top 5 Greatest Love Stories In History

Most of the ideas about love and relationshipswere heavily influenced by mass media. It is all good until your own love life starts to blossom and you realize that all of the books, movies, TV shows, and songs are made-up fantasies, and real-life romance are nothing like it.

A closer look at the greatest love stories in history reveals that many of the most famous lovers met a tragic end. However their romantic relationships were so remarkable and powerful, that they inspired books and numerous legends. It shows us that true love is stronger than anything else and can exist in the real world, here’s a great body of evidence.

1 – Sultan Süleyman I and Hürrem

Roxolana well known as Hürrem, meaning “the smiling and endearing one” was one of the most powerful woman in Ottoman empire. Her intelligence, composure, and personality captivated Sultan Süleyman The Magnificent, and she soon became his confidante and one and only love. In contrast to Ottoman imperial practice, Süleyman married Hürrem, becoming the only sultan (with the exception of a 19th-century ruler) to officially take a wife. His devotion for Hürrem continued after her death, as observed in the poems he wrote bemoaning her absence and his loneliness.

Hürrem Sultan was the favourite and later the chief consort and legal wife of Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent.

I am a flatterer near your door, I always praise youHeart is full of sorrow, eye is full of tears, I am Muhibbi and I am happy.

Hürrem’s power and influence over the sultan intrigued both the Ottomans and the Europeans. As a Haseki (a title given to a royal wife, literally “belonging to the ruler”), Hürrem accumulated immense wealth, and used these funds to build and support architectural complexes in Istanbul and Jerusalem in addition to those in Ankara, Edirne and Mecca. Hürrem was a self-made woman who excelled in her role as the supportive and assertive wife of the most powerful man of the age.

2 – Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal

Ever heard of the Taj Mahal? The famous palace in India is actually the ultimate declaration of love, built in the 17th century by Shah Jahan as a stunning final resting place for his beloved wife. Mumtaz Mahal — or “Jewel of the Palace,” as he named her — was the ruler’s third wife, but he clearly favoured her and was so grief-stricken when she died during childbirth that he immediately began work on the Taj Mahal. It took 23 years to complete the homage, where he joined her at his own death in 1666.

3 – Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

10th February 1840: Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901) and Prince Albert (1819 – 1861) on their return from the marriage service at St James’s Palace, London. Original Artwork: Engraved by S Reynolds after F Lock.

One of our more modern tragic love stories is just over a hundred years old and from an unlikely source — the British royal family. The love that Queen Victoria felt for her husband Prince Albert was as genuine as her 63-year reign was long, say historians, and his untimely death in 1861, 40 years before hers, devastated the otherwise powerful monarch.

Victoria favored the color black for the rest of her life and spent much of the last decades of her reign in relative seclusion. When she finally passed away in 1901, she was interred in their common mausoleum and had these words inscribed over the door: “Farewell best beloved, here at last I shall rest with thee, with thee in Christ I shall rise again.”

4 – Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, sometime between 1932 and 1934, when their exploits in Arkansas included murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Contrary to popular belief the two never married. They were in a long standing relationship. Posing in front of a 1932 Ford V-8 automobile.

Bonnie and Clyde, lovers and criminals who traveled the Central United States during the Great Depression were not considered as romantic back then as they are today. Their gang was responsible for at least nine police officer and several civilian deaths. It is unsure how the couple met but it is thought that it was love at a first sight. When Bonnie and Clyde met (probably in 1930), the latter already had a criminal record but that obviously did not bother Bonnie. She decided to join him in his criminal undertakings and stayed with him until the very end. They were ambushed by the police in Bienville Parish, Louisiana in 1934 and killed. The couple wanted to be buried together but Bonnie’s family did not allow it.

5 – Cleopatra and Mark Antony

Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Silver Denarius, 32 BC (3.45 g, 12 mm).

The love between the Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra and Mark Antony went into history for theirtragic end. Both committed suicide after they were defeated by the Romans under Octavian (the later Augustus) although Cleopatra hesitated. After Mark Antony’s suicide (he stabbed himself after receiving a false news that his lover was dead), Cleopatra tried to negotiate with Octavian. According to most sources, she killed herself by inducing an asp to bite her when she realized that she cannot “charm” Octavian. Cleopatra and Mark Antony are said to be buried together but the location of their tomb remains a mystery.